Severn and Solent (Day 2/5)- 10/04/17
The day started off bright and early at around 0520, with me making myself a cuppa and packing the croissant and breakfast shake i’d picked up last night at the convenience store near Temple Meads before checking out and heading to that aforementioned station! It was very quiet around this morning, no surprises there, but it was a very welcome sight to see winner
150202 simmering away on the 0600 to Bristol Parkway in its refurbished guise. We were soon underway for the empty hop to shack 1, Lawrence Hill, where I had around 20 minutes to fester until the next service in behind (I was on a return to St Andrews Road before the rover kicked in) so I admired the sunrise and the rather grim looking row of shops before winner
150261 trailing dud
153333 came rolling in for the next hop along to shack 2, Stapleton Road. It was a much shorter wait here, and there were a few people starting to mill around as I noted my first 150 of the day belting through on the run now for Penzance! That can’t be a fun run, although from memory it attaches to a 153 at Plymouth, being full and standing from Newton Abbot back in 2012.
The Severn Beach service was soon arriving, unamusingly formed of stalker dud
150938 (now had on a Yate-Bristol Parkway move, an Exeter St Davids-Central move, a Temple Meads-Severn Beach-Sea Mills move and now a Stapleton Road-Montpelier move!). Anyways, no worries as I was dropped off around the corner at shack 3, Montpelier. Time to get walking in the morning sunshine up the hill, admiring a house full of geese in the front garden before slipping sideways onto shack 4, Redland. However, I was to keep going up the hill and left, right, left, right into Clifton, noting a bakery and being unable to resist a bacon sandwich, even for the slightly steep £2.90! It was however done to perfection, cooked to order and put in an insulated packet for me as I headed down to the platform at shack 5, Clifton Down, unable to resist devouring the sandwich before winner
150925 arrives in on my next adventurous run. This was taken to shack 6, Avonmouth, and was where my next walk began, bringing a taste of home back! My Dad used to drive for Lynx and UPS back in the day and he’d take me with him on his delivery runs to the likes of Corus Steel (later Tata Steel in Redcar) and Teesport, so walking up a busy industrial road with trucks speeding past every few seconds was a blast from the past!
I eventually located shack 7, St Andrews Road, and had a few minutes to await dud
150925 once more, this time arriving into Bristol Temple Meads for 0834, 2 minutes late. Bit of a yikes moment when my next intended service was the 0836! I managed to just make it onto winners
150122/158766 on the service to Weymouth (the 158 getting detached at Westbury), and took them as far as shack 8, Bath Spa. I was also being a bit naughty here, having been so engrossed in trying to get Bath in as a bonus that I didn’t realise that I was travelling a whole 24 minutes earlier than allowed
I did however have a wallet with money in if the guard took issue, which she didn’t. Bath Spa was somewhat of a building site, and the usage of just 1 platform seemed to be a source of chaos as the London HST rolled in late for seemingly no reason, taking forever to unload then load again before toddling off to Bristol, leaving me to await the 09whatever to Waterloo, which should have been a guaranteed winner considering that i’d only had 3 159s! Imagine my face when dud
159002 showed itself!
Slightly disheartened, I plonked myself down in the very comfy seats (this was an unrefreshed one) and enjoyed what was actually a very nice run between Bath and Bradford on Avon. Lots of scenery to look at, and the train was pretty lightly loaded. And, it was an easy connection onto the ex Swindon 150 at Trowbridge. Not quite, as that 150 had managed to make itself 9 minutes early and the daft signaller threw it in front of us, leaving us to sit outside of Trowbridge for 15 minutes until the thing moved! I eventually bailed at Trowbridge, 8 minutes late, at shack 9, and noted the 150 on its return run. It was dud 150106, so no loss there. I did however have a bit of a chunky 20 minute wait until dud (getting a theme here)
158950 turned up to take me to shack 10, Westbury. Next move was a quirky one, as I headed for Platform 1 and dud
158766 from earlier, boarding the completely empty shuttle to Warminster. I requested Dilton Marsh off the guard and was told to get off at the very front, and it was a nice short hop there, shack 11, where I noted the insanely short platforms! It was a winding potter down the ramp, under the bridge, across the road and back up the ramp again to await the 158’s return (I’d recommend a good 2-3 minutes to change platforms as there are a couple of tight possible connections here) back to Westbury, where my next service was already waiting.
Winners (yay!)
150247/150265 were sat on the ex Weymouth to Temple Meads, 265 having evidently just attached as it was empty, and that’s where I sat for most of the journey, although there was a slightly unnerving stench of diesel in the carriage! I moved forwards just before shack 12, Freshford, bailing in glorious sunshine at what was a very pretty station, set in basically the middle of the countryside! I however made a daft mistake here in not walking to Avoncliff (my original plan was to get the next service to there and walk to Bradford on Avon, as my train back ended up being 9 late, meaning that I had nearly 35 minutes to kill. I ended up having a stroll into the fields, taking some nice shots of the surrounding area, and returning to the hilarious sight of dud
153329 all on its own for the run to Bradford on Avon, shack 13. I nipped out here for something to have at lunchtime, being returning for a Westbury service once more, unamusingly formed of dud
158954 (I need a lot of GWR’s 158s!). As I bailed on the Bristol and Somerset area hoping to see more red pen usage, I joined a packed winner
43029 leading dud
43071 to shack 14, Castle Cary, managing an aisle seat so I could charge my phone.
I had half an hour there, where there wasn’t a lot around, until dud (I also need a fair few GWR 150s!)
150127 took me along to Weymouth. It was however a very nice run, if a bit squishy until Yeovil Pen Mill. I was however glad to be getting off around an hour later at shack 15, Weymouth, and seeing a lovely air conditioned winning
444010 waiting for me on the other platform
With the inbound service I wanted to connect to also running late, I also spotted a chance to capture a certain evil +1 connection level crossing shack. I took 010 to shack 16, Moreton (Dorset) with a newly created +6 connection due to an inbound delay for some reason (I think Waterloo had imploded) and onto dud
444003 back to shack 17, Upwey. It was annoying getting duds in such an exotic part of the country constantly, but I wanted these shacks done with because they’d mean that a repeat visit wouldn’t have to venture so far south! I bought my ticket from Bitterne to Bursledon for tomorrow from the TVM, before dud
150127 made a return and took me to shack 18, Dorchester West. This was merely a bonus shack because i’d timed it right so as to connect with the GWR service, and I soon had a stroll along to shack 19, Dorchester South, joining dud
444003 again up to Southampton. I could relax a bit for now.
It was a lovely run north and east along the coast before drawing inland a little and heading back around the coast through Poole. The New Forest was also a pleasing sight, before we were eventually arriving into Southampton Central at 1658. Next move was the 1706 to Totton, and very unusually, winner
159010 was heading that way! Indeed, this 159 diagram involves doing a Winchester to Totton run, going back ECS to Basingstoke, then coming out to play again for a Basingstoke to Portsmouth via Botley run later on. Very useful to get an extra 159 in. It was taken to shack 20, Redbridge, where there was a short wait for a refreshed dud
158881 to shack 21, Millbrook Hants. It was a fairly busy time here seemingly, though not a lot around except houses and the distant sight of freight trains up back near Redbridge. Nonetheless, only a few minutes needed to pass until winner
158887 made an appearance to shack 22, Romsey. I’d originally intended to go to Mottisfont and Dunbridge, but realised that if I caught the delayed GWR back earlier, i’d be able to snare a peak time extra 450 heading up to Winchester. Hence, it was a hasty bail onto dud
158960 where I was rewarded for my efforts.
Winner
450123 was in charge for the run north to shack 23, Swaythling. Indeed, the reason why i’d wanted to do this shack was that during the day, it’s a 20 minute or so wait with only the Romsey Rockets calling, but in the peaks, even the Pooles put in a call or two. It was however a very risky move as the 158 back to St Denys was late and I only had a +3. Stupidly, I jumped on dud
158881 and tried my luck. The delay wasn’t helped by the guard insisting on blowing a whistle twice and waving his flag at every station, but I jumped off at shack 24, St Denys, and absolutely bolted it down the stairs, diving through the local door of winner
158885 as it was getting ready to depart. A sigh of relief was indeed had as it was taken through to shack 25, Enthusiast Paradise. I mean...Eastleigh
Indeed, plenty going on here with the first 73 i’ve seen in person simmering away in the yard, but it wasn’t long until double winners
450041/450084 were taken along to shack 26, Southampton Airport Parkway. Winner
444007 was then trundling in behind soon enough and it was back to Southampton Central. Another stab was then had at a Southampton Airport leap, and I was rewarded with winner
158883 up to the Airport, where I decided to grab dinner from the terminal before taking winner
444038 back down to the Central where a change of scenery was decided on.
Winner
158957 was next up and was duly taken to Fareham just as darkness started to fall, as I shifted focus to my remaining shacks between Fareham and Havant. A few minutes later, we then had dud
377208 coming up behind, and it was taken along to Portchester, shack 27. Another service was also waiting behind, and that was dud
450569 along to shack 28, Cosham. Time to switch directions now, and hit a rather annoying double dud formation of
450073/450075 to Fareham again, before a more fruitful winner
450126 popped up for the leap to shack 29, Botley. It was a rather dark 5 minute fester here, before winner
450035 appeared to take me Fareham bound again. I spotted an excellent move to employ before my Eastleigh run, and that was through a return to Swanwick, my last non hourly served shack between Southampton and Havant to get. It required a damn tight connection, but I pulled it off and was rewarded with winner
377154 along to shack 30, Swanwick, and indeed it was a fruitful return back with winner
450005 to Fareham.
On my return, I was greeted with a late running 377 terminated early at Fareham instead of Southampton, with the 5 or 6 passengers dumped on the platform with the driver studying the timetable for them. Yep, Southern hadn’t put an OBS on the service and it was down to the driver to lock out the carriages, help stricken passengers, and cart the unit off into a siding before it got in the way of the 2220ish to Eastleigh! Thankfully, this was slickly pulled off and an empty winner
444034 came along for the run along via Hedge End, with it being a very peaceful run, only resulting in a 20 minute wait at Eastleigh, but never mind, plenty freight action to look at, at this time!
A fair few 66s came in and out with driver changes, with many more blasting through non stop. It was an entertaining wait before winner
444024 came along on the 2303 to Southampton Central, arriving at about 2320 and seeing me taking a short stroll to the Travelodge, dumping my bags and taking a shower before sleep was had at around midnight.
A good day with the red pen eventually coming out later on!
Total Winners: 25+30 shacks
Total Mileage: 312mi 49ch
